The New York City Marathon has been canceled after residents protested plans for it to go ahead in the aftermath of Superstorm Sandy's widespread destruction.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg said yesterday evening that the annual 26.2-mile race will not be held this Sunday, despite workers spending the days after Sandy preparing the course.

The mayor had previously defended his stance to have the race to proceed, despite the fact that millions across the five boroughs remain without clean water, food, and electricity.

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Source of controversy: New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg cancelled the marathon Friday amid growing public pressure

Called off: A woman runs through debris from Superstorm Sandy. The New York City Marathon was finally canceled yesterday evening after residents protested plans for it to go ahead

In Central Park yesterday...

Preparations: Workers yesterday continued to set up the finish line area of the New York City Marathon in Central Park, just hours before the annual event was called off

Ready for action: New York Marathon organisers were preparing for the race right up until yesterday afternoon

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'The Marathon has been an integral part of New York City's life for 40 years and is an event tens of thousands of New Yorkers participate in and millions more watch,' Mayor Bloomberg said in the statement.

'While holding the race would not require diverting resources from the recovery effort, it is clear that it has become the source of controversy and division.'

He added: 'We would not want a cloud to hang over the race or its participants, and so we have decided to cancel it.

'We cannot allow a controversy over an athletic event -- even one as meaningful as this -- to distract attention away from all the critically important work that is being done to recover from the storm and get our city back on track.'

The race is likely to be held at a later date although no details were given as to when this would take place.

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It is also unclear whether any of the nearly 50,000 runners who were expected to compete in Sunday’s marathon, thousands of whom traveled to New York from other countries, would be compensated in any way.

The move to cancel the event is historic as it has been held every year since 1970, including in 2001 when the marathon took place just two months after the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

In Staten Island yesterday...

Devastation: Dulce Espino (left) and Viridiana Cruz weep in their Staten Island neighborhood where many houses were completely destroyed

Salvaging memories: Members of the Traina family sort through photos and other personal items they found in the remains of their Staten Island home

Marathon material? Mayor Michael Bloomberg toured a storm damaged area of Tottenville in Staten Island before claiming the marathon had become a 'source of controversy and division'

Race is off: The Mayor insisted the Marathon would not interfere with the recovery of the city but decided to cancel it after pressure

But the cancellation was almost
inevitable after opposition, from runners as well as politicians and
residents of the worst affected areas, intensified as days wore on
post-storm.

At a news
conference on Friday, Mayor Bloomberg defended his initial decision to
go ahead with the marathon as a way to raise money for the city and
boost morale less than a week after Sandy knocked out power and left a
death toll of 109 people.

He noted that his predecessor, Rudolph Giuliani, went ahead with the New York Marathon two months after 9/11.

‘If you go back to 9/11, Rudy made
the right decision in those days to run the marathon and pull people
together,' Bloomberg said.

The
mayor added that the marathon's organizers are ‘running this race to
help New York City, and the donations from all the runners in the club
will be a great help for our relief efforts.’

Earlier
this week, the mayor said the race wouldn't siphon off resources from
the storm recovery, noting electricity is expected to be restored to all
of Manhattan by race day, freeing up ‘an enormous number of police.’

Lost everything: A woman is helped along by family members in in Breezy Point, Queens, which was ravaged by fire during the storm

Devastated: Sandy's Aftermath was still being felt on Friday at Coney Island

Everything lost: Two women embrace outside a home destroyed by flooding on the south side of Staten Island

Carnage: Mounds of debris pile up in the street in the heavily damaged Rockaway neighborhood

The New York Road Runners, which partners with ING for each race, could not immediately be reached.

Business owner Paul Wilson agreed
with Bloomberg’s desire to continue with the marathon. Wilson, who owns
Bar East on Manhattan’s Upper East Side, said the weekend after the
superstorm was ‘the perfect time to have it.’

He said: ‘I don’t think the timing could have been better.’

Runners along the 26.2-mile course pass right next to Wilson’s bar.

The course runs from the
Verrazano-Narrows Bridge on hard-hit Staten Island to Central Park,
sending runners through all five boroughs.

The course of the marathon wasn't going to be changed if it went ahead on Sunday, as there was little damage along the route.

Even
before Bloomberg's announcement this evening, as organisers put
finishing touches to the finish line, Staten Island residents were
crying as they saw their
devastated neighborhood.

Residents - some of whom have had to
wade through local dumpsters to find food and supplies - were demanding
to know why generators used for the race were not being used to help those in desperate need.

Gathering belongings: Christopher Traina tries to salvage some personal items from the basement of his parent's Staten Island home, which was destroyed

Washed ashore: A boat is washed up and left on South Beach in Staten Island after the Superstorm

Broken homes: Houses in South Beach on Staten Island left destroyed by Superstorm Sandy

Aftermath: A limousine sits atop another vehicle in South Beach on Staten Island

A third generator would not even have been used unless there was an emergency -
causing even more friction between organisers and residents over what Mayor Bloomberg considered an emergency.

For days officials in the storm-ravaged
tri-state area insisted that plans to go ahead with the New York Marathon would not affect
recovery efforts, but they were in the minority.

Congressman
Michael Grimm, whose district includes the devastated
borough of Staten Island, was one of several prominent politicians who
earlier yesterday voiced his fury that the annual race was going ahead,
even while
many on the island are without water, food, and electricity.

‘There’s no question I’m angry about it,’ the representative said, just hours before the event was called off.

‘The
city of New York is talking about getting water out of the Battery
Tunnel and getting ready for the marathon. We’re pulling bodies out of
the water.’

Speaking on the Today show, Rep Grimm, who represents the 13th
District of New York, said that residents of the borough are barely
coping in the wake of Sandy, and the last thing on their minds is a
race.

‘There are those walking the street and they seem almost hopeless,’ he
said. ‘They’ve lost everything and there’s nowhere for them to go.'

More than 100 homes were destroyed in Breezy Point, Queens. Flatbed trucks that originally helped with rescue operations had been diverted to prepare for the marathon, which is now canceled

Hauled away: Garbage men disposed dozens of shopping carts full of ruined goods on Wednesday at the Fairway supermarket in Red Hook, Brooklyn, New York

Still a long way to go: A woman walks past debris piled in the streets of Hoboken, New Jersey

Postman Mike Conroy delivers the mail to a pharmacy damaged by floodwaters in Hoboken, New Jersey

Nevertheless, the Mayor's office had said: ‘Our recover efforts are ongoing and none of those will
be impacted by the marathon. No resources will be diverted.’

'There are people right now that have no heat who have no food and are
sitting in the dark.

'To say that we have enough resources just isn’t
accurate. There’s a lot of unanswered questions. We feel that no one
understands us.'

Staten Island Councilman James Oddo echoed Rep Grimm’s anger.

'The
notion of diverting even one police officer, one first responder, one
asset away from this carnage, is beyond irrational,’ he told the Daily
News.

Earlier, Mayor Bloomberg said he saw none of the damage or power outtages as
insurmountable, and defended the decision to hold the race, insisting
resources wouldn't be diverted from storm victims.

He noted at a news conference on Thursday that electricity was expected to
be restored to all of Manhattan by race day, freeing up ‘up an enormous
number of police'.

‘This city is a city where we have to go on,’ he said.

But many New Yorkers didn't feel that accurately reflected the current
situation.

A petition on Change.org asked Bloomberg and other officials
to postpone the ING Marathon until the spring of next year.

‘Police, fire, and other emergency services should not be diverted to
the Marathon during this time of crisis,’ the petition read. ‘This
event is always a positive event and it should not be turned into a
hugely negative drain on city resources.’

Some critics also questioned whether the marathon should go ahead at all.

The marathon would have brought an estimated $340million into the city.

Organizers
would have used it as a backdrop to raise money for recovery efforts. Race
organizer NYRR will donate $1million to the fund and said more than
$1.5million in pledges already had been secured from sponsors.

Power-up: When the marathon was still going ahead, residents were working out how to charge their phones

Rubble: James Traina climbs over the remains of his parents' house on Staten Island

Video: Mayor Bloomberg announces the marathon will still take place - watch the mayor speak and see reactions from New Yorkers